蜜芽传媒

MY GREAT ESCAPE 鈥� Chapter 3

Safely behind the American lines I was told that they had been watching me through binoculars for some time. They said they couldn鈥檛 make out my uniform 鈥� it was almost the same colour as the Germans, but a different design! They also informed me that I ha crossed a minefield safely. They said it was most likely because the heads had been frozen and my weight hadn鈥檛 been enough to set of the mines! They were still suspicious and kept a gun trained on me until an officer arrived. He interrogated me thoroughly about my knowledge of London and the shows that were on there. As my home was a few miles south of the city, and I had been on leave only four weeks earlier, I was able to answer his questions satisfactorily, convinced at last that I was a genuine R.A.F. officer and that I had baled out of a stricken Halifax while flying as a crew member on a raid on Bingen Marshalling yards. I asked the American officer if they had been shelling the German positions the previous night. When he replied in the affirmative I told him they had missed the German battery, and gave him detailed information of the enemy positions. I was then taken back to the main camp and given a wonderful meal 鈥� my first in many days. Luxembourg city was the next stop. A hotel was taken over by the Americans for in transit officers. I had a refreshing bath and was taken to the American clothes store and fitted out with an American uniform. They asked me my rank, which was a Pilot Officer, and I was told, 鈥� that is equivalent to a Captain鈥�, and I was given two silver bars to put on my shoulder.

Back at the hotel I had a bed next to an American Army Captain, and when he saw the old German boots, he laughed and I told him the didn鈥檛 have my size in the stores. He saw my flying boots and said he would swap with his old paratrooper boots, as we were the same size. I told him they were soaking wet, and he said, 鈥淚鈥檒l soon have those dried out and they will keep me warm in this weather鈥�, and thus the bargain was made. After this we went down to dinner together and then to a bar in the town of Luxembourg and had a few drinks.

The following morning I was up early and had breakfast, said goodbye to the Captain, and was then picked up by a jeep and taken to a chateau in France, which proved to be the Headquarters of General Patton. I was interrogated by intelligence officers and gave them all the information I had gathered on my trip through Germany and the frontline, and positions marked on my silk escape map of flying bomb site, downed aircraft, tank positions, pillboxes etc. I was then taken to the Officers Club for a few drinks, and whilst at the bar I heard sounds behind me and into the bar came a General with all his entourage. He spoke to the Colonel next to me and said, 鈥淲ho the hell is this?鈥� The Colonel said, 鈥� it鈥檚 alright sir, he is an R.A.F. Officer shot down in Germany and who has evaded out鈥�. Then the General asked for my story, which I gave. He then asked if I had seen a medical officer yet, to which I said 鈥淣o鈥�, and he turned around to an American Officer/Doctor, and said 鈥淗ow the hell can he survive as he did, and be as fit as he is now?鈥�

I was taken into lunch and sat next to General Patton. After lunch I was given cash in French francs and put on transport for Paris. On reaching Paris I was handed over to the British for transport back to the UK. On reaching the airfield I was taken out with a group of people to an Anson and boarded. The only seat left to me was to sit next to the pilot. On taxiing round the airfield I asked the pilot if he wanted me to wind up the undercarriage, and he gave me a quizzical look as I was in an American uniform, i.e. How did I know about British aircraft.
After about twenty minutes airborne we ran into very bad weather. We continued flying on our heading for a while and the weather started to get worse. I looked at the pilot who had a worried look about him, and I said 鈥淎re you sure where we are?鈥� and he said 鈥淣o鈥�. I could see on the chart that he had the wind direction written down, and I had timed our time of take off and how long we had been flying, and I worked out in my head we should be coming up to the French coast with the forecast winds. I turned to him and said 鈥淲e should be coasting out shortly, we should be able to descend and get below cloud then, to get our position鈥�. I asked him to let me have a look at his map. He turned to me and said, 鈥淲ho are you then?鈥� I told him I was an R.A.F. Navigator and had been shot down, and was making my way back to the U.K. he said, 鈥淲hy didn鈥檛 you tell me that in the first place鈥�, which I hadn鈥檛 thought about. As we broke cloud there was the coast beneath us and from the map I identified our position. I then worked out a heading for Hendon, which was our destination, using the met winds, on which we set course.

We landed safely a little later.

After the war I found out that the bombing of the target our squadron had attacked (Bingen Marshalling Yards) has been extremely accurate, and no bombs fell outside the target area. There were no casualties either killed or injured outside that area, and 120 houses suffered only blast damage. The only thing that was destroyed was the Wine Keller. All movements of supplies by rail through Bingen to the Ardennes battlefront have been dislocated for the rest of the war.

Flight Lieutenant N.E.G.Donmall

LKY 鈥� POW鈥橲 Killed

Flying Officer 鈥� G Watson 鈥� Pilot Flt. Sgt G Parkes 鈥� Mid Under
Sergeant 鈥� J McClaffery Flt. Sgt. G Stewart 鈥� Mid Upper
Sgt. G Kelly Flt. Sgt F Booth 鈥� Rear Gunner
Flt. Sgt E. Gotham

Evader

Pilot Officer 鈥� N. Donmall 鈥� Navigator

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.